Although the invention is not limited to this particular application, it is especially useful in step-down gearing including a primary or drive shaft which rotates together with at least one gear wheel which meshes with a driven gear wheel of a secondary or driven shaft. In operation of this type of device, there exists a degree of backlash between the teeth, thereby leading to a loss of accuracy in the positioning of the driven shaft. Further, the backlash increases over a period of time due to wear, and this can give rise to improper operation.
Devices exist, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,804,906, for compensating such backlash by ensuring that all the slack occurs on one side only for rotation in one direction, which in effect means that the backlash is not taken up at all.
Preferred implementations of the present invention provide a method and apparatus for automatically taking up backlash in gear transmission systems, said method and apparatus being simple in design, easy to implement, and operating regardless of the direction in which the gearing rotates.